Agronomy

Biology

Gas Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Quechers

Formic acid

Pesticide residue

Selected reaction monitoring

Tandem mass spectrometry

Detection limit

Solid phase extraction

Pesticide

Mass spectrometry

Chemistry

Chromatography

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

A multiresidue method for the simultaneous and rapid analysis of 360 pesticides in representative agricultural produce (brown rice, orange, spinach, and potato) was developed using a modified QuEChERS procedure combined with gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Selected reaction monitoring transition parameters (e.g., collision energy, precursor and product ions) in MS/MS were optimized to achieve the best selectivity and sensitivity for a wide range of GC-amenable pesticides. A short (20 m) microbore (0.18 mm i.d.) column resulted in better signal-to-noise ratio with reduced analysis time than a conventional narrowbore column (30 m × 0.25 mm i.d.). The priming injection dramatically increased peak areas by masking effect on a new GC liner. The limit of quantitation was <0.01 mg/kg, and the correlation coefficients (r2) of matrix-matched standards were >0.99 within the range of 0.0025–0.1 mg/kg. Acetonitrile with 0.1% formic acid without additional buffer salts was used for pesticide extrac...

Rapid and Simultaneous Analysis of 360 Pesticides in Brown Rice, Spinach, Orange, and Potato Using Microbore GC-MS/MS